Forum - View topicTonari no Youkai-san (TV).
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11625 |
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Ok...so was she born with the hairpin?
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1649 |
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I'm a fan of the season but was underwhelmed by the finale for three basic reasons, those reasons being basic and three found, and three being the number of said basic reasons. I have no idea why talking like that seemed appropriate. Anyhow, anyone basking in the warm glow of their fondness for this show shouldn't read any further. I accept that some people might have found the finale incredibly profound or touching, and I don't want to ruin that for them. I'm not trying to ruin the experience of the anime as a whole either, just vent a bit because the finale frustrated me.
(1) The Deus Ex Machina thing. I won't deny that the series introduced the idea of kotodama before. I'm willing to fill in some blanks and assume that three Caspar the Ghost looking spirit children and the weird sperm cell things following them were in some sort of junction full of the raw energy of creation. And I'll posit that the demon lord was the most powerful of the yokai and managed to hang around a little longer than the others and lent his last ergs of consciousness to the whatever process occurred, and this is why every yokai in the world, even the ones the kids never knew and couldn't remember, revived in ten seconds despite kotodama being something that previously occurred when lots and lots of people poured their beliefs into the ether over a longer period of time. Even so, when you boil it all down, the kids resolved the entire crisis by wishing real hard. To me, it just felt like an asspull. Of course, any show can sound half cocked if you boil it down. The point is to handle things well enough that it doesn't occur to people to boil it down. (2) The "Dad is Dead" well that the story kept going to dried out for me. I was genuinely affected by Mu-chan's sadness at the beginning of the series. And I was very sad when dad reappeared - sort of - with a form of amnesia. I was less moved when dad got his memory back and then died....again....immediately afterwards. There was a lot going on and it all happened very fast and I was used to the routine by that point. So by the time dad re-reappeared... again...and immediately passed on...again....I was like "Would somebody take a rifle and put this #$%^er down already? I could try to figure out and rationalize why the dad had to go when thousands of dead yokai who Mu-chan didn't even know or remember were able to return just fine, but I honestly don't even care enough by this point. This is probably the biggest source of my irritation now that I've expressed it and looked at it. (3) The way the pseudo-science got valued over character time. Look, I've watched shows like Star Trek that will yell things like "ionic feedback loop" or "resonate the quasar streams" or whatever just to move the plot along or sew things up, and I can handle that. I'm also cool with magical realism type shows that don't explain anything and make the oddness and unvocalized internal logic or lack thereof part of the freaky atmosphere. So even though I thought the "Clap your hands and believe and a whole planet full of Tinkerbells will come back" thing was a bit of a stretch, I went ahead and stretched. I was ready to move along because the show has cast a wide net of characters and I wanted to see them get their due. And to be fair, Buchio and Takami got their moment, which was good. Tachibana got a terse "I'm going back to my family" and her amigo made a joke and it was over. Instead of spending a little more time with that, we got a newscast where they explained how some parallel Japan had an earthquake and farted out a cloud of black energy that impacted everyone. I didn't really need that, but okay. Let's see car-san. What? He just got a two second wordless panel...what...wait...we're back with a bunch of Tengu in lab coats still talking about this crap? The idea that oni were created through fear or bias is important, but it could have been introduced last episode when the oni began vocalizing memories. To me, it felt like they kept lathering on pseudo-science hoping that quantity would create the illusion that it wasn't all cobbled together. And the show did so at the expense of the character interaction IMHO. Okay, end of rant. All that said, I will watch the series again someday because I do like it. It just felt like a great appetizer and an awesome three course meal ending with a slice of pie that was half cooked. You kind of want to talk about the pie on the ride home, but you'll still remember the meal fondly. Last edited by Edjwald on Wed Jul 03, 2024 7:14 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24221 |
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Episode 13
I'm rating this Very Good since that reflects my affection for the show. I think you made some excellent points, Edjwald. Those objections are all valid. I could be wrong, but I'm not entirely sure the three kids resurrected every yokai on their own. I'm imposing my own interpretation here, but I think their interaction was an example of what may have been happening in other places but wasn't shown. If I'm wrong about that and the three kids are the sole reason all the yokai came back then there is a way I can mentally justify that as well. Those three had strong connections with specific yokai: Mu-chan with Jiro, Yakumi with Buchio and Ryo with Rain-chan so I can buy that those bonds made them not forget them and that by remembering them, they brought back the entire yokai "system" if you want to call it that. For me the most enduring mystery of this show is... ...what the hell was the function of those fans atop the poles??? |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 799 Location: North America |
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I thought that they were vane anemometers. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24221 |
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I had no idea such a thing actually existed. I thought it was just the show's way of telegraphing that we weren't in our version of Earth.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2984 |
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#13 End
It would have been a shame if the series ended with the Youkai being banished for good thanks to the inversion, so the writing had to salvage it somehow. It's not explained clearly what exactly happened, so casual viewers willing to put in the time for replays will feel more rewarded after picking out exactly what happened to restore just about everything back to pre-cataclysm. The second half of the series actually helps explain what happened when the three kids were drawn into that null space (the space between worlds illustrated by that white band around their planet earth). Sanmoto gathers the three children with the strongest connection to Youkai he could think of, and to whom he has a connection to thanks to Buchio's family member Takumi. Once his powers are restored thanks to the power of belief (Kotodama), Sanmoto trades his existence to breach the null space cutting off the spirits from the planet, allowing them to return and for the concept of divinity to once again apply to the planet. Obviously Sanmoto isn't coming back, hence his final monologue on what human company means to him. He got his answer after living centuries trying to figure it out. Although the damage from the cataclysm is significant, the survivors can carry on their lives much the same way survivors of natural disasters in real life get on with theirs after enough time has passed. There's self reflection and learnings to be had as well; the Tengu get lectured by Jirou on what happened during the Oni invasion and how they can reduce the impact of future breaches with a different mindset and approach to wandering spirits. Almost all of the open story threads are resolved with some kind of happy ending, Mutsumi and Ma being the notable bittersweet exception. Even though he gained the power to speak. Ma (Ayumu) is a different being from Mutsumi's father and is not treated as such. A difficult outcome to process for his family members, but a step forward from the purgatory they endured with his fate left unknown for years after Mutsumi's birth. With the Youkai restored to the world, the status quo is restored as the short-lived humans will be survived by their Youkai compatriots. Humans also realise just how important their daily lives are, and like the young couple understand how crucial it is to follow through on important decisions since tomorrow might actually never come given the state of their world. Not bad for an alleged "children's show", a very different brand of entertainment from something like Kimetsu no Yaiba or Kaiju No. 8. Not to everyone's taste, but it'll appeal to a wider range of viewer beyond those looking for a slice of life supernatural fix. It's also shorter than the ongoing Natsume series, so an easy binge (re)watch through a weekend should the desire arise. Not sure I'm keen on an original sequel as the adaptation is complete, and there's probably no need for it as everything was closed off nicely. |
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